Sensible passives (was: confession: roots)

>Muke Tever wrote:
>> ['Born' as a verb isn't helpful either, because it hasn't got a useful
>>passive.]
>
>But, what the child does would be a passive verb,

Rather what happens to the child is passive as in sensible language:
na:scitur = s/he is being born
na:scie:ba:tur = s/he was being born
na:ta est = she has been born/ she was born
na:tus erat = he had been born/ he was born
etc.

>and thus would not
>*need* a passive. What's the passive of "die"? :-)

In a sensible language like Latin "to die" is passive :-)
mori:tur = s/he is dying
morie:ba:tur = s/he was dying
mortuus est = he has died/ he is dead
mortua erat = she had died/ she was dead
etc.
Ray.
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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
[J.G. Hamann 1760]
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